


don't you dream impossible things?

by radiowrittenheart



Series: spread your wings, my little butterfly [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Childbirth, Cutesy, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Oneshot, Parenthood, Pre-Canon, Prophecies, Surprise Ending, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-19 02:19:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10630125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowrittenheart/pseuds/radiowrittenheart
Summary: A freezing fall evening is when the young king and queen have warm hearts. A princess finally joins the kingdom.





	

**Author's Note:**

> s'up kids my name is reagan and i love moon/river too much it's becoming a problem  
> this piece is actually not important to the rest of the series— i just really, really wanted to write this
> 
> ((note: when i put the tag "childbirth" i mean there's descriptions of blood (well, weird mewman blood but still) and i guess sorta explicit description but not really? idk? anyway if you're like 7 or you get triggered by that stuff i would advise hitting the back button or just skimming past that scene))
> 
> a lso this piece took forever to finish even tho i had about 75% of it done and collecting dust in my docs because i was too imcomponent to finish it r i p  
> title is a lyric from "starlight" by taylor swift... because reasons

At first, when Moon woke up, she was alarmed, unaware of where she was.

She woke to see nothing but white lights and the stale smell of … clean. Crisp air, crinkling paper underneath her body, the soft beep of a monitor. A groan involuntarily escaped when she shifted slightly. In fact, her entire lower abdomen had a heavy weight, rolling pain; Moon suddenly remembered where she was, what these circumstances were.

But thinking about it just made everything seem all the more painful and surreal. Broken water in the middle of a council meeting. A kerfuffle amongst the crowd, and … she had fainted. What a perfectly sensible, positively regal thing to do in front of her kingdom.

“Good to see you’re alive,” a dry voice spoke up.

“Glossaryck?” Moon furrowed her brow, glancing up at her mentor. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same thing,” a doctor asked as she emerged from behind a nearby curtain, rolling her eyes. “Just… keeping tabs on you, your Highness. King River was visiting his home lands, but we’ve sent a carriage to come get him,” She tapped the machines monitoring the queen, glared at Glossaryck and huffed as she left the scene.

The small deity of knowledge hovered in front of the queen, his fingers steepled while he looked at her. “I came here to congratulate you, my Queen,” he said. “I have to admit, this caught me off guard, I had no idea you were expecting—”

Moon huffed. “The whole kingdom has known for nearly half a year,” she muttered.

“I’ve been busy,” Glossaryck admitted.

“Yes, of course you have,” Moon sighed. She suddenly let out a grunt, as a contraction hit. This was too soon, they had to be false alarms… Screwing her eyes in frustration, the young queen sighed and looked back at Glossaryck. “So? Was that all?”

She typically wasn’t so short with him, but then again, never before had she been in such alarming circumstances.

“Right, well,” Glossaryck shoved his hands into the pockets of his robe. “I’m here to give you your prophecy, of course,”

Moon swallowed hard. Magical post-birth prophecies were rare in Mewni, usually reserved for royals only, mainly the Butterfly family. She had stories of them, of her own— how scary accurate they could be. The trials and tribulations the next princess of Mewni would go through … then again, what she would hear could either terrify or surprise her.

“Of course,” Moon echoed. “What do you have?”

Despite his unprofessionalism, Glossaryck was beyond powerful. He knew things no other being in any of the multiverses knew, one could even say he was the god amongst men. And so, he rolled up his sleeves, crossing his arms, closing his eyes as the gem on his forehead began to glow. The violet color lit up the entire room, causing Moon to squint as she watched the distorted ripples.

But there was no image. A pool of nothingness, as Glossaryck hummed and pursed his lips.

“She’ll be brilliant, in her own way,” he spoke up.

“It’s a girl?” Moon interrupted.

Glossaryck knit his brow, opening one eye to glance at the queen. “Well, of course,” he said, almost flippantly.

A sigh of relief escaped Moon. Some of her rather ignorant relatives had made rude comments, of how marrying into such a ‘barbaric’ family would result in sons, in tarnishing the family name… she didn’t care about any of those things they all fussed over, but their words practically pained her.

“As I was saying,” Glossaryck huffed. “Brilliant, incredibly so. She’s going to be rather iconic too, unlike anything Mewni has ever seen,” His face twitched a little as he went through the visions. “A bit hard to contain, just as a forewarning.”

Moon rolled her eyes. “Please don’t tell me—”

“She’s going to be just like you, most of the time,” Glossaryck declared. “There’s some things you can change, my queen, but others are out of your hands. Very emotional too, heart over head in many cases. Her strengths will lie in unexpected places. These strengths could also be her downfall, though, but if you give her some patience and care—”

He was alarmed when the young queen groaned loudly, trying not to curl up on the hospital cot. A doctor appeared from behind the curtain, eyeing Moon before checking the results that were on the screen by her bedside. Ignoring this, the small but powerful djinn went on.

“Did I mention she’s also going to be incredibly impulsive and stubborn?” Glossaryck piped up.

“Yes, yes, you did when you said she’ll be like me,” Moon muttered, waving a hand. “Is that all?”

Glossaryck went back to normal; the jewel on his forehead dimmed, his posture relaxed. “More or less,” he said. “It was a little disturbing, more like odd, that I could only see so far. She has too many possible paths.”

Moon paused, tentatively keeping both hands on her abdomen. “Is that a good thing?” she asked.

“Depends,” Glossaryck mused. “The paths were fifty-fifty, really, along one or two bonus paths that were somewhere in the grey,” He raised his eyebrows, watching the queen intently. “Take note, you may learn more from her than she will from you.”

“How does that even make se—” Moon was interrupted by a familiar shout, and the curtain swung open, revealing her husband, red-faced and hunched over like he had just run a marathon. “River?! What on Mewni happened?! I thought they sent a carriage to get you!”

“I outran the carriage,” River huffed out, crawling up onto the hospital cot and flopping next to his wife. “What did I miss?”

Moon hesitated, glancing up at Glossaryck who snapped his fingers and vanished into thin air. “Nothing too exciting,” she assured. “Honestly, they’re just monitoring me at this point. It’s becoming boring.”

Quickly catching his breath, River rolled his eyes. “Don’t say that,” he said. “How could this be boring?” He bore a sweet, sentimental smile and cupped his wife’s face. “I can’t believe we’ll be parents soon. That could be the least boring thing I’ve heard of,”

“I suppose—” Moon cut herself off mid-sentence, hissing loudly, her entire face morphing into a cringe.

“Oh, don’t worry,” River assured, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “You’ll get used to it,”

Moon knit her brow, trying her hardest not to glare at her husband. “I’m not too sure about that,” she muttered.

At first, River’s only reply was a nonchalant shrug. “I’m sure you’ll build up an endurance after the third one,” he spoke up.

“ _After_ the third?” Moon blurted out, her blue eyes going wide. She wasn’t even sure if she was going to last the first time around. “I would say three would be enough,” Her words came out in a hissing whisper, while she tried to endure another contraction.

“Oh, nonsense,” River said, with a booming chuckle. “We should definitely have at least another five or six little ones running around the castle, we have the room for it—”

She wasn’t entirely sure if he was kidding or not until she realized his excited chatter was beginning to become nonstop. “Five or six?” Moon spoke up. “River Johansen, you’re a mad man,” She mumbled the words against her husband’s chest, resting her head just below his chin. “I haven’t even had the first one yet,”

River chuckled, kissing the top of his wife’s head. “You’ll do just fine,” he murmured. “Besides, seven is modest— ooh! Think of it this way, one to love for each day of the week!” He heard Moon’s soft groaning, watching her trying not to curl up in pain. “O-or you’re right, let’s focus on our first one for now.”

Moon swallowed hard. It was a little early, she had heard the doctors whispering, as if they thought she didn’t already know. Amidst her royal duties and everything else that came with being Queen, Moon did prioritize the new life she was carrying, and she already cared for the child more than anything. She was a month early, to be exact. Her unborn daughter’s heartbeat fluttered, interrupting the dizzying thoughts, a tiny pink glow showing on the queen’s abdomen.

“You know,” Moon sighed. “This is your fault,”

“How?!” River spluttered out.

A laugh escaped Moon, and she hoisted herself up a little to kiss her husband’s cheek. “You’re the one who always said how excited you are to meet her,” she noted. “She probably decided to fulfill your wish.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” River argued, but his ear-to-ear grin said otherwise.

Moon couldn’t blame him for being so excited when the news of them being parents came to light; he had been born and raised in a plentiful family, after all, the middle child of nine siblings. However, Butterflys were simple, the firstborn was usually a daughter and it was all over and done with. Multiple births were not very common, nor was siblings.

But right from the start, even as a Princess, Moon knew she was far from ‘common’ or ‘simple’.

She was dauntless. A warrior. And most likely, in only a few hours, she’d be a mother.

Of all the battles she fought, this may have been one of the most terrifying. At the very least, if not most terrifying, the one that would cause her to use up all of her endurance and pain tolerance.

“You've got that face on,” River mused.

“What face?” Moon retorted. “The face that shows I'm in great physical pain?” Her sarcasm spawned an eyeroll from her husband and she smirked a little.

River couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle as well; “No, your worrying face.”

“Well, of course I’m worried,” Moon said. “We’re going to be parents, River, I — I’m a month early, I’ve never done this before, why _wouldn’t_ I be worried? Who knows what could happen?” She didn’t realize how tightly she was clutching onto his arm, until she saw her nails digging in. “My apologies, dear. It’s just… with everything else we’ve been through, I want this to go right. I want her to turn out fine,”

“She will,” River assured, embracing his wife and holding her close. “You’ll be fine. And as for us? We’ve made it this far,”

Moon nodded, letting out a deep breath that caused most of her worries to whoosh away, just for a second.

“You should get some rest,” River piped up. “You might need the energy,” He noticed anxiety cross his brave, beautiful wife’s face, and traced her cheek just below the bright pink diamonds. “I have utmost faith in you, dearest.”

“At least someone does,” Moon smirked, snuggling up to her husband and fluttering her eyes closed.

Little did she know the idea of relaxing for only a few minutes would only be in vain.

 

**_._ **

**_._ **

**_._ **

  
A scream that was sure to blow out some eardrums echoed through the royal infirmary, and it quickly dwindled into a whimper. Moon clutched the railing of the bed, breathing heavily, her face stained with tears and sweat. Keep going, they urged her. On, and on, it felt like an eternity had passed since all of this madness had begun. Her handmaidens and ladies in waiting were kind enough to be by her side, but there was not much else anyone could do for the queen. Even her husband could only sit there, watch helplessly as his love suffered, and she was holding onto his hand to the point of breaking it.

“Um, darling—” River tried to stammer out… something, but the death glare from his wife caused him to cower in fear.

“ _Not a word,_ ” Moon shot back through gritted teeth.

“Fair enough,” he practically squeaked out.

The doctors went between murmured worries amidst one another to yelling instructions for the queen to follow. The nurses were practically useless in Moon’s eyes, just stammering young girls who hadn’t a clue of how to help—

—the pain caused the young queen to freeze, hanging her head and weeping.

Moon had been branded as one of Mewni’s bravest queens, and here she was now, feeling weak, unable to do something as natural as labor. A calloused thumb brushed away some tears from the hot pink diamonds on her cheeks, and she turned to look at River, with a shaking smile.

“A little more pressure, your Highness, please,” the main doctor pleaded, wincing at the massive pools of sparkling, sticky purple blood before him.

At this point, Moon knew everything she was doing was on autopilot and she tried her best to follow the instructions—

—and suddenly, the pain began to fade as a softer, much more shrill scream followed by a wet cough echoed through the room. Everyone in the room gasped, laughed in disbelief or a strange mixture of both. Moon didn’t even have time to react, she just flopped onto her back, still tightly holding onto her husband’s hand. She heard the commotion, but paid no mind to it, just focusing on recovering from all she had been through in such a short amount of time.

She didn’t even realize that her daughter was there— her newborn daughter, her little princess— until a pair of tiny hands were making blind grabs in the air and the soft wailing was in front of her. Gently taking the baby from the nearest nurse, Moon felt new tears spring to her eyes, and she coughed out a laugh, smiling and glancing to River, who had the same tearful expression of joy as she did.

Their baby was a sight to see, practically a perfect split of them both; with a kind, gentle round face, topped with tiny wisps of sunshine blonde hair, periwinkle blue eyes wide open and looking everywhere all at once. And of course, her cheeks had traditional Butterfly family marks.

A soft pink heart on each side.

“Given the circumstances, she’s rather small,” the doctor spoke up, adjusting his glasses. “But everything else seems perfectly healthy,” As if his point had to be emphasized, the newborn baby girl continued to scream into her mother’s chest and flailed as much as she could, certainly making quite the first impression. “Congratulations, your Highnesses. You’ve been blessed with quite the heir,”

He was elbowed by his fellow associate, then bowed.

“We’ll give you two a few moments,” he muttered.

The doctors and nurses had retreated for only a few moments, all of them eventually dissipating from the room to give the royal couple some time.

“We still need to give her a name,” Moon piped up. “All this time, and we haven't even spoke of it,” She thought for a moment, and realized that wasn't entirely true. The subject had been brought up many a time but never they had never come to an agreement. “What are your sisters’ names again? Spirit, Angel, Melody…”

Johansens prided themselves on naming their children after members of the family; Butterflys, on the other hand, had too many burdens to carry.

“Destiny was my mother's name,” River said, his tone of voice soft, almost vulnerable. “She would have loved to meet her first grand-daughter,”

Moon bit her lip in thought, mulling over the names. All of them were lovely, but not quite it. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the newborn baby girl in her arms; their daughter. Their beautiful, already feisty little princess. “She looks like you,” she noted.

River hummed out a tired laugh. “Oh, no, don’t kid yourself,” he mused. “She’s yours.”

“She’s ours,” Moon said, her voice breathless from both amazement and exhaustion.

“That she is,” River agreed. Suddenly, he was a blubbering mess when his wife lifted up their newborn daughter ever-so-slightly, as a gesture for him to hold her. “You can’t possibly trust me to hold her— she’ll probably be scared of me—”

Moon rolled her eyes, placing the baby in her husband’s arms. “She’s not scared of you,” she laughed. “You’re her father. She loves you,”

River stammered for a few moments, before realizing his newborn daughter was at complete peace in his arms, her tiny arms waving in a blind attempt to reach out for … something. He chortled, taking his daughter’s incredibly small hand and shaking it.

“Hello there,” he whispered. “Welcome to the world,”

The reaction he got was not one either of them expected, to say the least. Their baby girl suddenly let out a loud cry, clutching tight onto her father’s finger and refusing to let go with surprising strength for someone her size. Moon was suddenly shocked out of weariness, and she seemed more alive and awake than ever.

“Oh, she is definitely a Johansen,” she said. “She has the strength and energy,”

“She’s a Butterfly because she’s already yelling at me and doesn’t have a reason why,” River retorted, earning himself a swat on the shoulder from his wife. “What? You didn’t give me time to mention she’s also breathtakingly beautiful,”

Moon sighed, meeting her husband’s gaze— only for it to trail away when she noticed the night sky.

It seemed different than usual. She hadn’t bothered to notice trivial things like the weather lately, but it was a typical Mewnian autumn night. Heavy dark grey clouds looming from every direction, a slight pitter-patter of rain. But each one of the moons, all four of them, seemed to be perfectly aligned as if each one of them was in the corner of a square. In the middle of the four moons… only one star in the entire sky to be seen.

“Moon? Darling?” River’s voice finally invaded Moon’s thoughts, and she looked to him, perplexed. “What kind of medicine did they give you for the pain? You seem so out of it—”

“I’m fine,” Moon sighed, rolling her eyes. “I was just noticing the sky,”

River squinted. “Again, what in the world did—”

“River, look,” Moon urged, turning her husband’s face so he could focus on the same point she was looking at. “Have you ever seen anything like that?”

He furrowed his brow. “Well, no,”

“Now,” Moon sighed. “Have you ever seen anything like her?”

Glancing back at their precious bundle of joy, River chuckled softly. “Of course not,” he said.

Moon gently kissed their daughter’s hairline, smiling tiredly. “In that case,” she mused. “I know _exactly_ what to name her.”

**_._ **

**_._ **

**_.  
_ **

 

 

**_epilogue_ **

“You’re being a baby hog,” Moon huffed. “At least let me have five minutes with her,” She leaned down to place a kiss on her husband’s cheek, a perfect distraction for her to swipe their daughter from his arms. “I swear, River, she won’t even recognize me if you keep holding her,”

River playfully rolled his eyes. “Well, who else is supposed to look after her when you’re off too busy being Queen?” he playfully shot back.

Moon smirked. “Good try, darling,” she said. “But I will never be too busy for this little one,”

Their daughter babbled excitedly, clapping her tiny hands with her eyes practically twinkling. At only a week and a half old, she already seemed like a bit of a handful, and it was clear to see both of her parents wished it was only temporary.

“You are insufferable,” Moon said, clucking her tongue at the newborn— who could only giggle in response.

The trumpets sounded, which surprisingly did not faze the tiny Princess. This was it. This was a new beginning. Another step in the Queen’s reign, in her life with her beloved king, and a new chapter for the kingdom of Mewni. And most importantly, the circumstances of their daughter, oblivious to how much she had and what a life she was going to live.

“Citizens of Mewni!” a knight hollered for all to hear. “Their Royal Highnesses, Queen Moon and King River!”

The king and queen glanced to each other, anxious, before reaching out to hold hands. Their fingers were intertwined, River slightly leading Moon forward as they walked onto the balcony, side-by-side under the gaze of their adoring kingdom. The cheers washed over the new royal family, and Moon squeezed her husband’s hand slightly, glancing at him with a small, almost shaking smile.

Their cheering only increased, and everytime, her nerves never seemed to simmer down.

A jester sounded the trumpet off-key a few times, a call for silence, before Moon politely smiled. She looked at the jester and nodded, letting him step beside her and clear his throat loud enough for all to hear. He picked up a megaphone, and the announcement rang through the land.

“Mewni, say hello to your Princess; Starlight Destiny Butterfly!”

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

It should have been them, he thought bitterly. It _could_ have been. They could have begun a revolution. Instead, she had involuntarily started a war. Of course, she didn’t know that. Not yet. He would strike when the moment was right.

She had to have cheated. There was no way a child that beautiful was a product of that barbaric idiot—

—who was he kidding? It was theirs. They were deeply in love, and _it sickened him_.

“Isn’t the princess breathtaking?” someone gushed beside him.

He sneered, rather than replied, and just enough teeth showed to cause the innocent Mewnian citizen to back away in fright. “Quite,” he muttered.

Breathtaking was certainly a word for it.

It was also a good way to describe the literal, and metaphorical, storm on the horizon. Producing an umbrella out from under his cloak, he began to shuffle his way through the crowd. Many of them paid him no mind, just a passer-by—

“Hey, aren’t you Queen Moon’s old friend?” a slurring dolt practically hollered. “Toff—”

Toffee took the stranger by the neck, holding them until they began to turn blue. “I was never her friend,” he lied.

They were never just friends. They were so much more; they had potential. And she was the one to throw it all away, to not see what they truly had. He had sat through her coronation, her wedding, but this? This was the final straw. She did not deserve happiness.

Not after the way she treated him.

The fumbling, bumbling idiot gasped, then kicked in mid air until they were let go, curling up in the dirt and muck of the ground. The rain began to steadily fall, and the king and queen waved one last time before retreating inside the castle. It was then Toffee just had to turn around—

—and she was gone.

The crowd dissipated around him, for he was frozen still right outside the grand palace.

The same place he was born and bred, now a place of banishment.

“You _will_ get yours, Moon,” he hissed, glaring at where the Queen had been standing. “I will get to you, any way I can.”

**Author's Note:**

> points to loveandwar007 for helping me figure out Star's full name!
> 
> comments are always appreciated, yo! c:


End file.
